Pink Ribbon Review| Raising Breast Cancer Awareness

May 15th, 2008

THE INSPIRATION PATH BY LEAN CUISINE®

Just found out about this: THE INSPIRATION PATH BY LEAN CUISINE®.

Follow that link and you can read (or create) messages of encouragement and inspiration — personalized for someone touched by breast cancer — “to make sure no one walks the path alone” (love that).

Enjoy that … and get this:

Lean Cuisine® has partnered with Susan G. Komen for the Cure — and has for the last six years — raising money through a designer lunch bag program (who knew?). $5 from the purchase price of every bag sold was donated to Komen. They’re sold out out of bags (bummer) but they raised $661,510 through that program! I’ll let you know what their 2008 program will be; hopefully I’ll be among the first to know.

You should really visit their site — they’ve got loads of pertinent information on BSE and early detection and the links between stress, weight, diet and exercise.

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By Karen Lynch -- 0 comments

May 15th, 2008

Bumble Bee Foods in the midst of their BeeWell Miles Campaign

Yes, another pink product sighting at the grocery store! Seems Bumble Bee Foods has launched an Interactive Health and Wellness Program to benefit the Y-Me National Breast Cancer Foundation.

The program runs from May 1 to June 30, 2008.

“During the two-month campaign, grocery store shelves will get a makeover with 10 million pink Bumble Bee® Solid White Albacore tuna cans — a low fat, high protein food that is ideal for a healthy diet. Through these special pink cans, Bumble Bee Foods is making an initial donation of $150,000 to Y-ME.”

So, if you want to participate on your end … first you buy the tuna. Buying foods that help you to eat healthy benefits everyone.

“BeeWell Miles will encourage consumers to get active via BeeWellMiles.com, an interactive Web site where consumers can get information for a healthy lifestyle and log the miles they are walking or running each day. When one million miles are logged, Bumble Bee Foods will donate an additional $50,000 to Y-ME for a total donation of $200,000.”

So, second, make sure the tuna doesn’t just sit in your cabinet. Include the tuna in your balanced diet. Let me know if you have any great recipes, by the way (I like to add cut up apples apples to my tuna and Miracle Whip, personally). Easy on the mayo — keep a low fat food lowfat, would ya?

Finally, log into the Bumble Bee website (BeeWellMiles.com) and log in the miles you are walking or running each day.

Yes, that means you have to get out there and walk or run each day. Or at least a few times a week. More on the benefits of exercise soon, I promise.

Are you all getting out there and exercising?

(Image: Karen Lynch)

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By Karen Lynch -- 0 comments

May 15th, 2008

A Breast Cancer Statistic

Did you know that …

The most proven and significant risk factors for getting breast cancer are being female and getting older.

(Source: Susan G. Komen for the Cure)

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By Karen Lynch -- 2 comments

May 14th, 2008

Exercise May Lower Breast Cancer Risk for Teenage Girls

Do we need another reason to get our children exercising early in their lifetimes? Seems that regular exercise in adolescence and young adulthood may help lower a woman’s risk of developing breast cancer before menopause.

“The women who were the most physically active were 23 percent less likely to develop premenopausal breast cancer than the women who got the least exercise, the researchers wrote in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. High levels of exercise from ages 12 through 22 contributed the most to the protective effect, the researchers said.”

Earlier today I posted that my sisters are at high risk simply because they are my sisters. But here’s hope for their daughters.

Anyone here have a teenage daughter? And does she exercise?

(Image: Newscom)

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By Karen Lynch -- 0 comments

May 14th, 2008

Breast Cancer Risk Lasts a Lifetime for Sisters

I read in a US News & World Report article today that women whose sisters were diagnosed with breast cancer face an increased risk of breast cancer throughout their lives regardless of their sister’s age at diagnosis.

I have two sisters, so I was particularly interested in this one. I did a quick look at the Science Daily article on the same topic …

“Sisters of women diagnosed with breast cancer still have an increased risk of breast cancer 20 years after diagnosis of the sister, suggesting that women live with the burden of familial breast cancer for their lifetime,” the authors write.

Forget simply relying on BRCA1 or BRCA2 test results — the risk is there even in the absence of an abnormality in these two genes. If you have a sister, please pass this along to her.

The question is … do your sisters take their breast health and their increased risk seriously?

(Image: Newscom)

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By Karen Lynch -- 2 comments

May 14th, 2008

More on PTSD and breast cancer

As you might know if you read my post yesterday on PTSD and breast cancer, yesterday was theme day for b5media’s Health and Wellness channel — each of the bloggers on the channel wrote a post recognizing mental health month — here’s the round-up provided by Alicia at Mental Health Notes. I just wanted to share with you one specific post that caught my eye.

Seems Gloria Gamut at Cancer Commentary had the same idea for theme day as I did! Her post goes into more about PTSD — citing more of the research for those that are interested — so check it out.

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By Karen Lynch -- 2 comments

May 13th, 2008

Researchers Target Tumors With Tiny ‘Nanoworms’

Hard to believe this, but researchers are learning how to potentially target tumors with tiny, robotic ‘nanoworms’ that could administer a lethal dose of an anti-cancer drug without impacting other parts of the body.

Scientists at UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and MIT have developed these ‘nanoworms’ that cruise through the bloodstream and could act like tiny anti-cancer missiles.

How cool is that?

(Image: Used with permission, UCSD news center)

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By Karen Lynch -- 0 comments

May 13th, 2008

Breast Cancer Can Cause Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

People newly diagnosed with breast cancer have very specific mental health needs. Check out the facts cited in a 2006 Psych Central article:

“While nearly half of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients experience clinically significant mental anguish before treatment begins, the disorders are often unrecognized and undertreated. In a new study by Dartmouth Medical School researchers, virtually all newly diagnosed women admitted to experiencing some level of emotional distress, and 47 percent met clinically significant screening criteria for emotional distress or a psychiatric disorder, including major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Studies have shown that significant emotional distress, including mood disorders and related functional impairments, afflict up to one-third of breast cancer survivors for up to 20 years after treatment.”

My recent post on dealing with depression lists a few steps people should take if the breast cancer blues are bogging them down.

But PTSD is entirely different from the blues, and requires a much deeper look. So I talked to Dr. Paula Rauch, Founder & Director of the Marjorie E. Korff PACT Program at Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center (Parenting At A Challenging Time), and she shared this with me:

“You can imagine that it is ‘traumatic’ to go from feeling you are ‘well’ with some symptom to receiving a cancer diagnosis that leaves one fearful that one might die from the cancer. Many people describe the feeling that after hearing the words ‘you have cancer’ that everything feels surreal or terrifying, their hearts pound, or they don’t hear anything else the doctor says. It feels like an acute life threat and can be difficult to integrate, and thus can be like other more commonly imagined traumas such as being held up at gunpoint, or a war experience.”

So what are the symptoms of PTSD when the trauma is a breast cancer diagnosis? Truth be told, they’re not dissimilar from the symptoms of PTSD stemming from other events:

• Intrusive thoughts (unable to get them out of your head)
• Hypervigilance (constantly watching for potential threats to your wellbeing)
• Flashbacks (seeing the ‘picture’ of where you were when you were given the news)
• Difficulty sleeping

And, don’t be surprised if you find yourself dealing with these issues down the road:

“Many people are left with a pervasive sense of loss of safety and many will say that life is never the same after one has a real taste of mortality,” says Dr. Rausch.

The good news is … it’s never too late to get help. Here’s a great assessment tool, sponsored by the American Psychological Association, that’ll help you determine where you are in terms of healing and the personal growth after facing the trauma of your diagnosis: A Post Traumatic Growth Inventory.

Like this topic? It’s the b5media Health & Wellness Channel’s May Theme Day and it’s all about mental health; our host this month is Alicia Sparks at Mental Health Notes.

So … where are you with your mental health these days (please specify if you’re newly diagnosed, in the midst of treatment, or living the ‘after cancer’ life)?

(Need help finding someone to talk to? Use the APA’s psychologist locator.)

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By Karen Lynch -- 1 comment

May 12th, 2008

Tomorrow is LIVESTRONG Day

Just got this email from Lance Armstrong …thought I’d share it with you (and no, I don’t kid myself by thinking he wrote to me personally):

Tomorrow is LIVESTRONG Day, a day when more than 600 cancer awareness and fundraising events will take place all across the country. Every staff member from my Foundation is attending a different event, and I’ll be visiting a few of them myself.

But tomorrow isn’t about me, it’s about you – how you will make cancer a priority in your own community. Tomorrow is the day when we want our entire country’s eyes to be focused on the cancer fight. Will you help us?

Anyone can take part in LIVESTRONG Day. Here are some things you can do join the fight against cancer:

1. Wear Yellow – Show us how you demonstrate your support for the cancer fight.
2. Attend a LIVESTRONG Day event – From bake sales to bike rides, there’s sure to be an event in a community near you.
3. Pick a fight with cancer. Tomorrow only, when you register for the LIVESTRONG Challenge use discount code LSDay08 to receive 1/2-price registration. The LIVESTRONG Challenge is my Foundation’s signature fundraising event. Walk, run or ride in Portland, Ore. (June 29), San Jose, Calif. (July 13), Philadelphia, Pa. (August 24) or Austin, Texas (October 25-26), and pick a fight with cancer.
4. Make a donation. Support our efforts to unite and fight cancer through a donation to the LAF.

So … are you in? Are you going to celebrate LIVESTRONG Day?

(Image: Newscom)

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By Karen Lynch -- 2 comments

May 12th, 2008

A Menopause Primer: Natural, Chemical and Induced Menopause Explained

I thought we all could benefit from a menopause primer.

Let’s start with a general definition. Menopause is defined as the absence of menstrual periods for 12 months. It starts when a woman’s menstrual cycle starts to vary in length and duration and ends when it is clear that the function of the ovaries have ceased — twelve months after the last menstrual period.

So, a woman with regular periods is considered premenopausal. Once her periods start to become irregular, she’s perimenopausal. Twelve months after her last period, she’s post menopausal.

In natural menopause, the ovaries naturally decrease their production of the sex hormones estrogen and progesterone.

I think most people understand what chemical menopause is: menopause induced by chemotherapy or other chemicals or medications.

Induced menopause is menopause induced by an unusual event, such as ovary removal (a bilaterial oophorectomy) or ovary damage (by radiation). Chemical menopause is a form of induced menopause.

Here’s where breast cancer factors into the equation and why all this is important information for survivors:

• Menopause is the end of a woman’s fertile years, her childbearing years. So a young woman looking at induced menopause has to consider her feelings on her fertility. (It is also important to note that while she’s perimenopausal, she could technically still become pregnant, and chemotherapy drugs and hormone therapies and radiation could all harm a fetus if she conceives during her treatment.) These issues need to be discussed with a medical professional prior to beginning treatment.
• With induced menopause there is an abrupt cutoff of ovarian hormones. This can cause the sudden onset of hot flashes and other menopause-related symptoms such as a dry vagina and a decline in sex drive. It’s important that women know where to turn for help with these symptoms and side effects (more to come on this, for sure).
• Early menopause carries a greater risk for heart disease and osteoporosis since there are more years spent beyond the protective cover of estrogen. But now that Hormone Replacement Therapy is linked to a higher breast cancer incidence, all women need to take these complications into consideration and do their best to care for themselves and their health (more to come on this as well).

I’ve got some great resources to share with ya’ll to help you manage your menopausal symptoms — and a fun giveaway as well. Stay tuned!

(Much of the information here I gleaned from medicinenet.com.)

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By Karen Lynch -- 2 comments